Haiti

Haiti is the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere, with 80 percent of Haitians living on less than two dollars a day. Haiti's poverty is exacerbated by the needs of a large population and by political and socioeconomic instability.

The dire situation in Haiti was worsened by a 7.0-magnitude earthquake in January, 2010, which decimated the country's already decaying infrastructure. About 230,000 people died, and nearly 2 million Haitians were displaced.

Catholic Relief Services has served in Haiti since 1954. Our experience there allowed us to respond to the earthquake immediately and has positioned us to be a key development resource as the country recovers.

Stats

Population:

9,893,934 (July 2013 est.)

Size:

10,714 sq mi; about the size of Maryland

People Served:

1,352,783

History

Catholic Relief Services began working in Haiti in 1954 after Hurricane Hazel devastated the country and killed about 1,000 people. High population density, severe deforestation and decaying infrastructure make Haiti the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere, particularly vulnerable to the effects of natural disasters such as hurricanes, earthquakes and floods.
CRS Haiti is committed to helping the Haitian people in many aspects of their lives. In Haiti, CRS responds to emergencies, provides agriculture assistance, supports education and works to enhance the health care system throughout the country.

Partners

Catholic Relief Services partners with the Archdiocese of Port-au-Prince to rebuild Hospital St Francois de Sales

Hospital St Francois de Sales, reference hospital for the country's Catholic health network, was established in 1881, by the Archdiocese of Port-au-Prince to serve the most vulnerable population.

In the aftermath of the 2010 earthquake, the archdiocese and CRS discussed possibilities to reconstruct Hospital St Francois de Sales. A memorandum of understanding was signed between the archdiocese and CRS in September 2011. With funds from Catholic Health Association, Sur Futuro Foundation and CRS reconstruction commenced in August 2012.

This project also strengthens the archdiocese's capacity. CRS seconded two senior technical staff to the Health Unit to support the hospital development process. Other direct financial support increases archdiocese's capacity to oversee and liaise with all the entities involved in this project.

Programs

Almost 90 percent of rural Haitians live in poverty, and many have difficulty producing and purchasing sufficient food year-round. Catholic Relief Services provides support to farmers to improve their agricultural production and access to locally-produced food. CRS also provides farmers with business skills to enable them to sell their products to increase their incomes. To date, CRS has helped 10,000 farmers to have higher yields of bean and cassava and 4,000 households to grow and sell mango and coffee in Southern Haiti.

As Haiti is threatened annually by severe storms, including hurricanes, CRS helps 4,000 Haitian farmers plant trees, use good agricultural practices and build protective structures on hillsides and in ravines. This helps families protect their lives, homes, water sources and land from damage caused by flooding, drought and other indications of a changing climate.

Catholic Relief Services works closely with the Haitian Bishops' Commission for Catholic Education (CEEC), the Haitian institution responsible for overseeing all ten diocesan education offices and schools within those dioceses. During the 2011/2012 school year, CRS helped the CEEC and the diocesan education offices conduct a comprehensive assessment of more than 2,300 Catholic schools in the country. With the resulting report and database, CEEC and the diocesan education offices are better able to plan education solutions, monitor progress in the schools, and use the statistics to advocate for greater support for Catholic schools from both the Haitian Ministry of Education as well as various other stakeholders.

Priorities for CEEC include teacher training and creation of participatory governance structures (such as student council and parent/teacher associations). While CEEC and the diocesan education offices are best placed to implement these activities, CRS continues to accompany CEEC with institutional capacity strengthening activities, including support for data management, financial management, use of ICTs in education, student learning assessments, and preparatory work for public presentations.

Catholic Relief Services has been working in five neighborhoods of Port-au-Prince since June 2010 as part of its Community Resettlement and Recovery Program (CRRP). CRRP is helping more than 25,000 earthquake-affected families resettle in neighborhoods with integrated and sustainable housing, water and sanitation, protection, community infrastructure, education and livelihoods solutions. In close cooperation with the local authorities, the Church and community-based organizations, CRS will build more than 3,800 latrines, rehabilitate houses, build soccer fields, canals and drainage, improve the effectiveness of the government to manage waste, and will create thousands of employment opportunities, so that the poor and vulnerable populations are able to live in a safer environment.

"I love waking up in the morning and breathing the air outside of the camp. I feel joy in my heart each day, and I owe it all to God and to CRS." Marie Andree, one project beneficiary, 2012.

Catholic Relief Services joined the fight against cholera within the first month of the outbreak in October 2010. With the support of CRS, our partner network of faith-based hospitals has reached nearly 2 million beneficiaries with cholera treatment and prevention services. CRS' support ensures that hospitals are staffed and equipped to respond to the cholera epidemic, and also provides training on quality clinical case management and cholera prevention awareness.

CRS also invests in the long-term sustainability of the Haitian health system by providing capacity building to help strengthen our partner hospitals' institutional management and service delivery. By targeting hospitals that serve the poorest Haitians with institutional strengthening, CRS is helping make sure that all Haitians can access quality care.

Approximately 30 percent of Haitian children suffer from stunted growth because of undernourishment. With support from the U.S. Agency for International Development, CRS is working with partners to address the problem of malnutrition through integrated programming that takes a two-pronged approach of both treatment and prevention. Activities include the provision of supplemental food for pregnant and lactating women and malnourished children, community-based health services for 32,500 children under five, pre- and post-natal care for more than 12,000 mothers, the establishment of 200 mothers clubs, training of more than 600 community health workers, home vegetable gardens, savings groups and income-generating activities for women.

Through the CHAMP program, funded by the U.S. Agency for International Development, Catholic Relief Services has provided care to more than 20,000 Haitians living or affected by HIV. CRS is working through a network of 19 local partners in 5 geographic departments to provide counseling, treatment referrals, support groups, school fees and livelihood initiatives.

MUSO Plus is the local project name for Catholic Relief Services' agency-wide Savings and Internal Lending Communities (SILC) method. SILC is a savings-led alternative to traditional microfinance. As of October 2012, the MUSO Plus program provides support to 434 MUSO groups, serving 10,005 members across Haiti. MUSO groups provide a safe place for members to save, obtain loans and establish a social insurance fund. Members save and then lend to each other from the accumulated group savings. Groups are autonomous and self-managed, building leadership in communities. CRS supports MUSO groups to build economic and social capital, and strengthen the resilience of the most vulnerable.

To create stability in Haiti, vulnerability caused by nearly universal food insecurity must be eliminated. Catholic Relief Services is using Title II Multi-Year Assistance program resources during the fiscal years 2008-2013 to spur economic growth through agriculture and natural resource management in fragile watershed areas, invest in people by providing access to quality health and education services, and reduce vulnerability to risk and maintain a capacity for flexible emergency response. Kole Zepol is a Creole phrase that literally means "to put shoulders together." CRS, with local partners in the watersheds, villages and institutions, are putting our shoulders together to eliminate hunger and food insecurity and develop a stable environment where program participants can live to their full human potential with dignity.

After 16 months of intense emergency water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) responses in camps after the January 2010 earthquake, Catholic Relief Services moved WASH-related activities from camps to neighborhoods. The work includes the construction and rehabilitation of sanitation infrastructure, improved access to water, solid waste management as well as public health promotion with a special focus on cholera prevention. Small-scale drainage canal works, urban gardening, recycling as income generating activity, and WASH in schools projects complement the holistic environmental health approach of the CRS WASH programming. All activities are implemented with a focus on capacity building and knowledge transfer to local project stakeholders favoring an owner-driven implementation process.

Hospital St. Francois de Sales, the reference hospital for the country's Catholic health network, was established in 1881, by the Archdiocese of Port-au-Prince to serve the most vulnerable population.

In the aftermath of the 2010 earthquake, the archdiocese and Catholic Relief Services discussed reconstruction of Hospital St. Francois de Sales. A memorandum of understanding was signed between the archdiocese and CRS in September 2011. With funds from Catholic Health Association, Sur Futuro Foundation and CRS, reconstruction commenced in August 2012.

This project also strengthens the archdiocese's capacity. CRS sent two senior technical staff members to the Health Unit to support the hospital development process.

CRS, through the Health System Strengthening Project, mobilized a network of seven faith-based hospitals. This group benefits by pooling resources and capabilities, and implementing joint activities such as the Supply Chain Management project.